You can now tap your credit cards to pay transit fares aboard Burlington Transit, Durham Region Transit, Hamilton Street Railway and York Region Transit buses.

Brampton Transit, GO Transit, MiWay and Oakville Transit already accept credit payment. UP Express accepts both credit- and debit-card payment.

All it takes is a quick tap on a PRESTO fare-card machine with your credit card, including those cards on a smartphone or smartwatch, and you are ready to travel.

After a successful test run in 2020 on UP Express, PRESTO expanded the contactless-payment program to Brampton Transit, MiWay and Oakville Transit, starting Thursday, August 11, 2022. As of January 11, 2023, 518,475 passengers have boarded using credit cards on these transit systems.

PRESTO has about 4.4 million active customers.

Some tips:

• Remove your card from your wallet, purse, or phone case to be sure you pay with the card you want to use. Payment devices accept taps from PRESTO cards and credit cards.
• You can also pay with credit cards on smartphones and smartwatches.
• When travelling aboard GO Transit or UP Express, remember to tap on and off with that same card (or method) as your fare is based on the distance of your trip.
• For journeys with other transit partners (meaning: not GO and UP), you just need to tap once when starting your trip as the other systems charge one flat fare.

Note that you can only pay for adult standard fares with a credit-card tap.

Regional transit agency, Metrolinx — the parent company for GO, PRESTO and UP Express — says it’s working on making debit-card payment an option for all local transit agencies. It’s also planning to roll out these new fare options to TTC riders as soon as possible. To get ready for new fare options, the TTC is upgrading devices to accept the new fare payments.